Saturday, February 10, 2007

The number three ranked QB prospect

Just about everyone agrees the top two QB prospects in the 2007 NFL draft are Jamarcus Russell and Brady Quinn, but who is number three?

Opinons are all over the map. Ask just about any scout or draft expert and you're likely to receive a different anwer.

Drew Stanton seems to have the best chance right now of being the third QB taken. Stanton has all of the skills you dream of when you think of a quarterback. He has good size, a good arm, but is also a very good athlete. The biggest problem with Stanton is his consistency.

Kevin Kolb also receives some talk at number three. Kolb has all the skills to develop into a quality NFL quarterback, but will need to adjust to an NFL playbook as he didn't play in a pro-style offense at Houston.

Trent Edwards is the sleeper candidate right now. He has flown under the radar because Stanford has been so bad, but he has the skills and the toughness to project to the next level. He is a talented pocket passer, has good size, and shows the ability to stand in the pocket and deliver the football with accuracy.

Troy Smith has seen his stock really fall since his awful BCS showing and sub-par Senior Bowl. Some still consider him the 3rd best QB, but those who do are becoming scarce.

Other names mentioned at number three are John Beck, BYU and Matt Moore, Oregon State.

9 Comments:

SpacemanSpiff said...

It's really tough to say. Early on in the 06 college season, many considered Drew Stanton to be a top pro prospect but those many have dissipated to few as what looked like a promising senior year for him and the Spartans turned out to be a flop.

Kolb has never impressed me too much from what I've seen of him. He's made some nice throws in college, but I don't see him doing well in the NFL at all, especially because he seems like he's a product of comfort with a system.

Regardless of his height and poor play, I do believe Troy Smith can turn into a big time playmaker at the next level. He may need work, and could be a project (in addition to having a line and a good pair of receivers), but I think if he can adjust to the speed of the NFL, he'll have a good career.

Out of all of these guys, I'd say Drew Stanton, because the mechanics are all there, just the brain needs a bit of tweaking. If they can improve that, he'll be a top level QB one day.

I like Stanton as the third QB taken in the draft. After that I think Beck may actually do the best but I would consider all of them backups or short term starters. Troy Smith is a great player but look at his offense. Put Beck, Stanton, or Kolb in there and any one of them would have had similar success. When you don't have to carry a team your weaknesses and inconsistencies remain hidden. Stanton was exposed because he tried to do too much on a weak team. Smith never had that problem. Beck has flown under the radar to a point but he is a classic drop back passer, has a cannon for an arm, and is very intelligent. His game translates to the NFL better than the others.

Thumbtacks, he's good but he's not athletic as other QBs like Stanton or Smith. But right now i think the #3 QB prospect is gotta be Troy Smith to me. I'm still on his band wagon. A lot of players' stocks have changed dramaticly because of one game. This happened to Brady Quinn, JaMarcus Russel, and Troy Smith. Both Troy Smith and Brady Quinn's stocks gone down because the team did not help them at all. Troy Smith didn't have anyone to throw to after Ginn Jr. got injured and his offensive line was horrible. Brady Quinn's stock went to because "He doesn't play good in big games". It's the team that lets him down. He carries the team on his back by running for a couple TDs and throwing AMAZING passes.

Troy Smith definitely carried his team "on his back" in the title game. Unfortunately, the speed he faced in that game is more like the speed he will see in most NFL games, which doesn't bode well for him. I think it's probably Drew Stanton.

I like troy Smith and I think it's unfair to judge him based on that one game, especailly when he played against plenty of speedy teams and did ver as well as he did. I think it's a toss up between him and stanton but in the long term like Edwards to make some noise in a few years.

I like Kevin Kolb he is a leader onand off the field, a "student of the game". A young man that will show given the opportunity which he did not get at the Senior Bowlthat he has the physical ability,arm strength, knowledge, and intelligence to grasp any scheme,and offensive set up the NFLmight have.

There's no need to worry about Troy Smith's 40-time or arm strength; sadly, the real issue is his lack of ideal height. If he actually is 6'1", like he's listed, then his stock should rise drastically and put him in the early second round; but if he's measured at his rumored actual height of 5'11", things will not be good for the kid. Yes, he also played pretty badly in the National Championship game, but I think more of that loss should be attributed to their o-line (they were absolutey POROUS in that game) and Anthony Gonzalez (I honestly don't know what all of these scouts see in this dude).

Kolb might have the best overall physical talent after Russell (don't be surprised if he blows people away with his numbers from the combine), but he's definitely going to have problems adjusting to a pro-style offense and the speed of NFL defenses. Don't be surprised if he also ends up being a complete bust. This kid is going to need an Alex Smith-like score on the Wonderlic Test to prove that he's worth taking the risk of drafting in the second round.

Stanton looked like a stud before last season...but that's well behind us. He's one of those guys that makes you scratch your head with his incosistency: you'll see him make huge plays sometimes, like a young Favre, and you'll see him totally kill a drive like Grossman. Crazy thing is, he's practically tied to Brady Quinn. If Quinn and Stanton both impress scouts at the combine, Quinn will go in the top 10 and Stanton may move up to a late first-rounder (maybe to KC?)...he would need a REALLY impressive combine though.

Chris Leak doesn't have anything going for him except a great college career. He's DEFINITELY under 6' (having seen him in person, I'd say he's about 5'10"), he's not much of a scrambler at all, and his arm strength won't wow anybody. I'd say IF he gets drafted at all, he's going no higher than the 4th round.